by H. M. Irwing
It had been strangely surreal. Having been friends forever, Lucy had been around nearly buff Jace countless times in the past and yet she had never felt that warm rush of feelings sizzling down her nerve endings to pool at the pit of her stomach. Butterflies.
Lucy had not been so naïve as to mistake it for love. She had called it for what it was. Lust. But even then, she had known—and secretly still did— that lust had been a sham. Lucy had always loved Jace as her friend. The sexual awareness only nudged that love into dangerous waters.
Watching the water close in over his head in that spectacular dive, Lucy had known instantly that her heart had sunk in with him. But she had buried it in that watery grave so that it remained there in its sunken depths. She had known then as she knew now that Jace was not meant for her.
With all she knew of him, protecting her heart and herself became her foremost priority. It was ironic that she’d even needed to consider that with her own best friend, but she knew him better than anyone. She knew of the countless broken hearts he had so carelessly left behind. Lucy didn’t want to be just another number added to that count.
Returning her wandering thoughts back to the present, Lucy blinked at the hot sun glaring brightly down at her through the windows, and thought back to that morning at the beach. She could still feel his hands hot against her skin. Moving caressingly, running his skilful fingers across her sensitive skin, triggering a world of emotions along the way. Lucy felt suddenly overwhelmed.
“We can’t.”
“Why can’t we, Lucy?” Jace questioned stiffly. “Haven’t I waited long enough already?” He asked as he cupped his hand to her cheek to pull her gaze up to meet his. His hold was firm, resisting Lucy’s efforts to draw away. He wanted answers. She couldn’t give any.
Lucy watched as his usual cheery, bright eyes darkened and his soft gaze hardened with a determination that didn’t bode well for her. “You cannot run away from me forever. I’ll tell you right now that I will do everything I can to make you mine.”
Lucy shivered in reaction and mutely shook her head in denial.
“I see you need a tasting of what we could have.”
His lips moved to close in on hers, but Lucy turned her head away in time. But that didn’t deter him. Where his lips failed, his hands didn’t. With a sharp tug, she found herself yanked up and into his arms. They closed about her in a vice. Imprisoning her length against his. Lucy tried to resist, but instead she cried out at each skilful stroke of his knowing hands that he sent down her spine, and whimpered for more when he stopped.
“You see. Like a spark to dry timber, you react like an inferno every time. Tell me I lie. That you don’t feel this for me.” Jace demanded a lot of her.
“I can’t,” she started to say, then, at his look of determination, Lucy backtracked quickly, “deny that… but that does not mean I’m ready to act on it either.”
“Get dressed and wear something sexy,” Jace said abruptly, rising from the bed. “I’ll convince you there is no escaping this for either of us.”
Chapter 5
Mr and Mrs Neil left for the city that evening, leaving the Little sisters trio behind in Jace’s care. After a quick farewell, Jace bundled all of them into his car. They drove off to the nearest eatery. Clad in yet another of her unisex t-shirts and loose-fitting jeans, Lucy could hardly claim to be dressed sexily, but she could never tell that from the look in Jace’s eyes whenever they ran over her, and that happened often.
Lucy blossomed under the attention. Each time she caught his gaze on her, she flushed with excitement. She knew he was attempting to seduce her with his attention and his constant presence. His efforts weren’t in vain. If she was sizzling from his mere proximity before, then she was melting now.
Lucy smiled weakly at his intense gaze and he returned it with a beaming grin that near knocked her off her feet. Thankfully, she was already seated. Lucy gulped down a mouthful of wine before looking up to meet his inquisitive gaze. But found herself caught in the sizzling heat of his gaze, regardless. The twins’ presence did nothing to soften the intensity of his gaze. Not one bit.
Feeling more than usually flustered, Lucy rose abruptly from the table and, with a politely muttered excuse, made a beeline for the restroom. She needed to freshen up to pull herself together… to put some space between them, to recover some control over herself. She didn’t want this.
Glaring into the mirror in front of her, she repeated loudly, “I don’t want this.” Her glare mirrored back at her, the intensity of her gaze held a moment then wavered indecisively. There was that ever-present yearning for Jace that she never could really deny. No matter what she tried, it never really went away.
But trust was a hard thing to come by, and having known in intimate detail all of Jace’s encounters with the opposite sex, it was hard to deny her trust in him was terribly lacking when it came to matters of the heart. Especially when it was her own heart.
She washed her hands and stared into her shaken expression in the mirror knowingly. She was beyond help. Her flushed features and bright eyes said it all. She was, to all intents and purposes, in his thrall. Her heart thudded in her chest with an anxious beat.
Heaving a great sigh, she turned in resignation to head back out and back to Jace. With a stubborn determination, she ignored the secret trill that sent her heart skipping a beat and put on the frown she knew she needed to wear on her face for protection.
“Emily?” Lucy called out on seeing her walk past her as Lucy emerged from the restroom.
“I need some air,” Emily threw over her shoulder as she continued her path towards the exit of the restaurant. Emily was still unhappy about Jace’s interest in Lucy, but she was sporting enough to try. Lucy hoped that Emily would soon set this behind her and move on to someone closer to her age. Lucy hated that she was hurting her, that she was causing her this pain. But just as Lucy could not help Emily’s hurt, she couldn’t help her own lust either.
Lucy returned to her seat to face the now solemn Cat. She cast a glance towards Jace and found his gaze trained unrelentingly on her. Her already heated cheeks flushed anew. It felt strange to be on the receiving end of his look. Having seen it directed at others before, it was weird to be the recipient of the look.
“I don’t want dessert,” said Cat, looking at Lucy earnestly, hinting at something with her hard stare. Lucy took a wild guess as to what she wanted and said uncertainly, “I …don’t… want any dessert either?”
“Was that a statement or a question?” asked Jace, his amused glance missing nothing. Lucy managed a sheepish shrug in response.
“Well alright then, I’ll call for the bill,” Jace murmured agreeably. The waitress was swift in executing his request. All too soon, the three of them were heading out the front door.
“What was that all about?” Lucy whispered to Cat as she lagged and held Cat back as well.
“I’m worried about Emily. I didn’t want to leave her out here alone,” Cat whispered back before dashing out after Jace’s vanishing figure as he stepped out onto the pavement outside and the restaurant door closed in behind him.
Lucy felt a moment’s discomfort, for here she was so lost in her own ridiculous longings for Jace that she failed to be the responsible elder sister that she should have been. Lucy hurried after Cat, and on nearing the exit she broke into a run, hearing some shouts and scuffles outside the door.
“Jace!” Lucy called out in fear, seeing him in a fist fight with a random stranger. Spotting Cat and Emily huddled tearfully in a corner, Lucy rushed over to them and demanded, “What happened?”
“That guy was hitting on Emily and was not taking no for an answer. He was saying some awful stuff to her. I heard him call her a ‘ho’ and then Jace was throwing a fist his way and all hell broke loose,” replied Cat, with an unusual amount of drama for her normally stoic self. Lucy could see she was very shaken over this.
“Stay with her,” she ordered, then looked around for somet
hing she could use that would help. Spotting a metal lid on a nearby garbage bin, Lucy rushed over to tug it off. Gripping the lid with both hands, she dived into the furor to smash the lid against the assailant’s head. It was not a hard smack, but it was sufficient to get his attention away from poor Jace.
Long enough for Jace to tackle the dude from the back as he came at Lucy, and to send them all sprawling to the hard ground beneath. Not exactly what Lucy had in mind in interfering. She winced as pain shot through from every point of contact with the earth, but Lucy was glad that Jace managed to use the leverage of having pinned the assailant between them to throw in one final knockout punch.
Then it was twice as worse as before, for now the weight of the unconscious dude pressed down onto her. But thankfully, not for long, for a moment later, Jace was shoving him off and asking Lucy urgently, “Are you okay?”
Lucy only managed a nod as she tried not to wince as he tugged her up. She was not too bad considering the level of impact. Her sensible choice in clothing had served to ward off the worst of the damage. Jace ran his hands over her, dusting down as he went and caressing too. In no time at all, Lucy was back to flushing red again.
“Come,” he called out to the twins, while still staring down at her, “I’ll take you two home and then…,” he paused to consider Lucy, “then, you and I, are heading back out for a night on the town.”
Lucy gulped, staring helplessly into his blue gaze but nodded her head willingly, after all, she knew better than most that resistance was futile.
The stopover to drop the twins off took longer than anticipated. Lucy had to make sure they were alright and not too shaken up over the ordeal. But rambunctious Cat and Emily had rebounded quickly enough. Having watched Lucy leap into the fray, cautions aside, had helped them resolve to toughen up.
So, she took her time instead to freshen up and change into tighter, ass-fitting jean leggings. Lucy applied her usual dab of mascara over her shoddy attempt at a smoky eye look and took a step back to peruse her appearance. She now sported a sleeveless and flimsy white, collared shirt and her only pair of semi-high-heeled shoes. Lucy had aimed high to put the h on hot but had to settle for the just t at the very end. With her limited resources, skills included, this was the best she could do.
She strutted out with as much swagger as she could manage, determined to give this night a go. This was her first date ever, and it was fitting that it would be with her first kiss. She stared with blatant admiration as Jace got up from the sofa he had been patiently occupying all this while, to come around to her side. She held her breath and tried not to hyperventilate as his heady scent hit her low where it mattered, and she was reeling in the essence that was all Jace.
“You look,” he paused to contemplate her seriously, before saying abruptly, “Shall we go?”
Lucy stared at him, dumb for words, craving to know exactly what he’d thought of her appearance, but then she was too chicken to find out. With a jerky nod, Lucy hurried ahead to dive into the front seat of the car. She promptly busied herself with fastening the seatbelt and tried not to be conscious of Jace sitting there beside her.
She had sat in the car with him countless times. Heck, they’d even bodily wrestled… there was no logical reason, none whatsoever, for feeling as tongue-tied about him as she now did. Lucy bent her head forward to hide the flush in her cheeks.
The door slammed shut beside her and the scent of him grew more intense within the closed confines of the vehicle. Lucy held her eager gaze firmly planted on her lap, refusing to allow it to stray in his direction. But that only seemed to elevate her awareness of him in every other regard.
All her other senses kicked into overdrive, striving to catalogue every nuance of his essence. She listened to his preparatory movements with her senses in hyperdrive as he moved to gun the engine. His hand fell to her side then, sending another inexplicable jolt of awareness to ripple down her spine.
He let it rest there a moment, waiting for the engine to heat up before releasing the clutch and sending the vehicle into a quiet roll down the pebbly lane. The silence in the Evoque became long, strained, and then difficult to break.
“You’re looking really beautiful.” He murmured finally, his tone a quiet whip of awareness in the dark.
“Um… thanks.”
Jace chuckled then, drawing her eyes involuntarily towards him. Lucy’s gaze lingered over his handsome features, taking in the attractive crinkles around his eyes as his face cracked with laughter.
“This is a little awkward, isn’t it.” Jace managed with a forced chuckle.
Lucy shot him a sidewise grin and had to agree, “It is a little.”
His hand left the steering to reach over and cover hers resting on her lap. Lucy clenched her fingers into a fist and did her best to hold still and not squirm in reaction in her seat. She felt razed from his flames licking at her skin trying to penetrate deep within to mingle with her very essence. She had difficulty taking in enough air to breathe, but somehow, every breath she took only fanned the flames further.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a long drive. They turned into a poorly lit lane and darkness swooped in to encompass them both. The Evoque dropped to a slow crawl. They had arrived at a nondescript looking nightclub. It had all the appearance of an abandoned block uninhabited by any living being. Visions of being scourged by werewolves or being sucked bone dry by vampires merged in her warped imagination. Lucy’s hand tightened instinctively over Jace’s grip. He turned his head sharply to peer down through the darkness at her. Lucy stared into the pitch-black night towards the dark void that would have been his face and shivered with the unique combination of attraction and fear. Fear of the very attraction that rose up to fever pitch between them.
His arm swept up and about Lucy, tugging her in closer, right up against his warm side. Lucy took refuge in his embrace, drawing comfort from the very source of her fears. It was the crux of her fears; a simple hug was no longer so simple in Jace’s arms. Normalcy between them was skittering crazily out of control.
What if this didn’t work out? What if what fired up between them was a fluke? Would their friendship survive it? Jace released his hold of her only long enough for them to emerge onto the vacant street. Then his arms were about her again, not so much as in offering his protection but more because he couldn’t help himself. Slowly, they moved forward.
Their combined gait was awkward at first before years of familiarity and the natural awareness between them worked to in sync their moves. Lucy clattered across the road; echoes of her footsteps filled the air as they made their way silently to the front door of the building. It swung open on their approach and they came to a stop in front of it.
Two huge-muscled bouncers stood like pillars barring their way. Lucy gaped up at them in awe even as Jace tugged her heedlessly forward into the loud blaring music and deep bass drums that beat right into her bloodstream to throb along her veins in a rhythm that tuned to her heart.
Lucy was immediately in the zone. Her rapture was instantaneous. The music and, more importantly, the company sent her straight into a state of euphoria. She wanted nothing more than to simply melt into his arms and let the bliss take her on the dance floor. And then Jace was making for the dance floor, his thoughts in sync with her own. Her grasp on Jace’s hand tightened and she felt her feet automatically leaden as he tugged her into an embrace.
Crumpling into him, she did her best to simply cling on. Her will to dance disappearing in her struggle to simply stay on her feet and not collapse at his in a mindless heap. It took a moment for the strength to return to her limbs, as each intoxicating breath she drew of him pumped her suddenly sluggish heart into a rapid beat. Her feet moved to the rhythm pounding in her ears.
A rhythm that had nothing to do with the music blasting from the loudspeakers and everything to do with the man holding her to him with a grip as gentle and warm as it was unbreakable. Not that she even considered breaking free. Lucy drew in a deep, shaky
breath and deliberately loosened her limbs, determined to make the most of the moment and do some serious damage on the dance floor.
Jace grinned down at her and then started to gyrate his hips to the beat of the music in such a way that should be prohibited as a public display of indecency. After a moment of stunned stupefaction, Lucy followed his move and then upped him one. His grin widened.
The dance swept on from one song through to the other. It was finally thirst that caught their attention long enough for them to untangle their limbs and leave the dance floor for the bar.
“That is my last shot, buster!” Lucy proclaimed in dead earnest, after downing the potent cocktail brew. The golden liquid sizzled a path down her throat and Lucy gulped with a grimace before immediately feeling its heady effects on her unsteady feet.
“What! The night is still young,” Jace grinned unrepentantly down at her as he tried to con her into taking yet another shot.
But Lucy shook her head in denial then regretted the move as her head started to swim. One glass and she was drunk and wrapped in his arms. Lucy stood between his spread thighs as he leaned against the bar. Jace swung them both lazily to the beat of the music, while slowly sipping at his own drink.
“Let’s head back, shall we?”
Lucy nodded her head in agreement, her throat feeling dry and hoarse from having to speak in a shout to be heard over the din of the music and the venue’s voluble patrons.
His hand slipped about her waist, its grip firm and possessive, and entirely alien, especially coming from Jace. But she didn’t protest. She found that she couldn’t protest and, instead, Lucy allowed herself to be herded out of the club and into the deep, dark quiet of the night. The cool clean air that met them at the door was a kiss of freshness across her skin.